View Full Version : Can Lightning Kill Receivers???
Wardialer
09-03-2003, 04:50 PM
after reviving my DRD420RE w/ a new NTE588 diode, and then successfully modding it, and running it perfectly fine for about a month it no longer shows any signs of life. Coincidentally enough my LNB also died (i get searching for signal) and my TV's cable input doesn't work so i have to run my cable through my VCR and use RCA jacks on my TV.
my question is? Can Lightning Kill Receivers?
a lot of my neighbours had their PC's fried and said that their estimator guy that came in said there's nothing you can do to protect yourself. :Slam_anim
my question is? Can Lightning Kill Receivers?
Oh Yeah !!
You can ground the dish but it is a waste of time .. There is so much power coming through if you get hit everything will be fried ...
Not realy much you can do but I would ground it anyways, it might just save you a fire ...
I have a big pole about 20 ft' higher than the dish , if anything gets hit it should be the pole ...
Power surges don't help either , Trust me !! ;)
If you are lucky it will kill the TV too.
mili
leet83
09-05-2003, 08:49 PM
4x4 i also have a pole 20 feet taller than the dish, great precaution especially living in florida, thunder storms everyday....other than that there isnt very much you can do to protect from a strike i mean what is a surge protector going to do lightning will arc well over 100 feet if it has to. a simple 100 amp fuse in a surge protector is what an inch long at most? it will zap right over that and fry everything...waste of money if you ask me
Your right , the 20ft pole is the way to go ...
I wonder if we should by them all up and charge an enormous price for them ...
20ft poles , $350.00 each , PM me ! ;)
skipper2
09-06-2003, 12:17 AM
Your right , the 20ft pole is the way to go ...
I wonder if we should by them all up and charge an enormous price for them ...
20ft poles , $350.00 each , PM me ! ;)
What a deal!! Does that include shipping? ;)
brummy
09-06-2003, 01:19 AM
I have 21 ft poles available for $300 shipping included PM me
brummy
leet83
09-06-2003, 03:07 AM
haha 20ft poles protect your investment! going faster than hu cards get em while ya can!
What is this a fucking pole auction site? :)
I want one for Dave to sit on and rotate if he hashes football on Suday. Any recommendations?
mili
electroman
09-06-2003, 04:07 AM
yea I've got one, dont liube it, when you shove up daves ass
Weren't you the guy that wanted all the pole auk jokes ?? ;)
leet83
09-06-2003, 04:19 PM
ram it up his ass sideways
I think you should ground your dish and grounding block as good as possible. If you are running a multi switch, you should ground that too. Think of it this way, you should give every oppertunity possible to ground off any portion of the current you can. There is one other VERY important step to protecting your valuable electronics...SURGE PROTECTERS! I am not talking about the $15 jobbies from K-Mart. Get nice ones. Like Belkins or another major name brand. Expect to pay $50-$100 for a nice suge protector that really works. If you are plugging in more than $100 worth of equipment, the surge protector is well worth the investment. There are countless people that just had their electronics fried when they tried to get the power grid back on line after the blackout a few weeks ago. A good surge protector would have saved a lot of people a lot of headaches. And in all likelihood, it is an unstable power grid that you are trying to protect yourself from, not lightning...although I have seen what lightning can do to an IRD, and it's not pretty. It peeled the insulation off of 100' of cable before it hit the box too. (His system wasn't grounded at any point)
valenti
10-24-2003, 06:51 AM
Nothing I like better than a man with a 20 foot pole!
valenti
coolwind
10-24-2003, 07:09 AM
Well i got you all ! I have a 60 ft Tower that my dishes are mounted no & I want Be Struck as I have 2 Street lights Wired to my dish So the Bulbs Will light up So I can see the Storms here! Shit Get with it!
No Dave With A ASS polling Would be nice to See So Someone needs to Create us a pic of it
P/S Look over the Drugs i am on
:flipa:
Hey coolwind , that morphine working pretty good or what ...
Good stuff eh ! :p
coolwind
10-24-2003, 07:32 AM
U got it Bro I Did not have too much to begain with But that Damn pump Works Goooooooooood ! & The loraset 10 Just Kick it in over Drive LOL
OH well dont want Pain I Screwed it up & they Screwed it back together LMAO :snipersmi
P/S wish U had Some 2
Mysis
10-24-2003, 04:01 PM
Hey 4x4 was I the only one that caught your pole auk joke??? HAHA
Next time you see smoke pour a bucket of water on in standing bare foot before it gets out of hand :)
Right 4X4? We must prevent housefires.
mili
Next time you see smoke pour a bucket of water on in standing bare foot before it gets out of hand :)
Right 4X4? We must prevent housefires.
mili
Your right mili , we have to be prepared ...
But , do not pour water on an electrical fire !
I advise every one have a Fire Extinguisher in their home and in a location that is easy to find when trouble breaks out ...
You will want to buy one that is labelled A B C D
A:Class A Extinguishers will put out fires in ordinary combustibles, such as wood and paper. The numerical rating for this class of fire extinguisher refers to the amount of water the fire extinguisher holds and the amount of fire it will extinguish.
B:Class B Extinguishers should be used on fires involving flammable liquids, such as grease, gasoline, oil, etc. The numerical rating for this class of fire extinguisher states the approximate number of square feet of a flammable liquid fire that a non-expert person can expect to extinguish.
C:Class C Extinguishers are suitable for use on electrically energized fires. This class of fire extinguishers does not have a numerical rating. The presence of the letter “C” indicates that the extinguishing agent is non-conductive.
D:Class D Extinguishers are designed for use on flammable metals and are often specific for the type of metal in question. There is no picture designator for Class D extinguishers. These extinguishers generally have no rating nor are they given a multi-purpose rating for use on other types of fires.
Also have smoke detectors strategically placed throughout the home ...
There is a new type out now that has a little antenna sticking out and when smoke is detected instead of just one going off that you might not hear these will all go off together in sequence and alert you ....
Now that it is the time to change the clocks it is also time to change the batteries in your smoke detectors ..
Don't just check it by pressing the button but light a match and blow it out and let the smoke get to it to make sure that the sensor is still working ...
If you are unable to do this yourself call your local fire dept and they will send out a fire prevention officer to check it for you free of charge ..
Captain 4x4 :p
valenti
10-25-2003, 03:19 AM
WOW...You can take the boy out of the Fire House, but you can't take the Fire House out of the boy.
In all seriousness, if people would JUST spend $25.00/year on batteries, it sure could save a few lives. Had a friend about a year ago who lost 2 family members, probably because there were no batteries in the smoke detectors. They were taken out because they were beeping the replace me warning and it was driving them crazy.
But because this is the Lightning Thread....I have my dish grounded in exactly the way the manuals describe. I frankly don't give a shit about whether or not the IRD gets zapped, I just want to do everything possible to keep the lightning BLAST out of the house. Also, proper grounding as described in HeartofDarkness post above does keep static charge on the dish down, thus making a lightning strike less likely. Lightning arrestors, grounging dishes and antennas, lighning rods on buildings, all serve different purposes with respect to safety and performance. As we all know, grounding gaurantees nothing, but it can provide a margin of safety.
valenti
borg1
10-26-2003, 03:58 AM
Panmax surge protectors have been known to stop a lightning strike through a power line. I don't know about a strike thru the RG6.
I took a hit to the dish last year when I was emulating. and while it did no damage to the receiver, it took out the emulator, the serial card in the EMU computer, and because I had that machine on the network, blew the router and every NIC in the house. It actually blew a chunk of bakelite out of the chip on the serial card. This is with an 8-guage ground wire running from the dish to the main house ground before it comes through the wall.
The only sure lightning protection is being unplugged,
but does anyone know of a good stand-alone RG6 surge protector?
valenti
10-26-2003, 08:41 AM
I have never come across an RG6 surge protector (and I assume your talking about a lightning arrestor here) , and I'm not sure there is such a thing. Because the shield on an RG6 goes to the recieving component (IRD in ths case) I don't think that it's possible to completely protect the IRD from lightning damage. RG6 grounding blocks are really meant to discharge any static build up to ground (there by reducing lightning strikes) and to direct any lightning strike to ground and not through your house.
valenti
Belkins makes a 'surgemaster II for DSS systems'. This very nice surge protector will cost you $65-85 though. This model has two RG6 ports (in and out). It also has 8 recepticles with two a bit farther away so you can use a couple wall warts, as well as a phone line.
borg1
10-26-2003, 10:18 AM
I guess the logical question is has anyone taken a lightening hit with any RG6 surge protectors/lightening arrestors, and how did they fare?
Anybody reports they pulled their smoking surge protector from behind their equipment and the equipment still worked, and I'm a new customer.
The only sure lightning protection is being unplugged,
I am with borg1 on this one !
Another good way is to use a dish cover , they come in handy in all types of weather ...
The belkins models that I use and like are expensive, but they are the best on the market that I know of. The RG6 protection is the same as for the outlets. When you purchase these surge protectors they come with a guarantee that Belkins will replace any equipment that is plugged into the surge protector should the unit fail to protect your electronics. You actually mail in a form and tell belkins what is plugged into the surge protector and it's value. In all reality, you get a surge protector to protect against power surges, not lightening. An actual lightning strike is extremely powerful and unpredictable. It could do nothing, or it could burn down your house with everything in it. I don't know if Belkins would actually honor their guarantee, but it makes me feel better, and they are very nice units. I am on an unreliable power grid that fails about once a week. I got the surge protectors to protect me from the surge when they get the power back on. So far I have had no problems what so ever. I also have almost $500 of surge protectors in my house. Since I have about $15,000 of electronics plugged in to them, I think it was a wise investment.
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